Maury County continues to mull over potential tax increase

Thursday

May 16, 2019 at 12:01 AMMay 16, 2019 at 9:07 AM

The Maury County Budget Committee's roadmap to a new budget includes analysis of a drop in revenue and a potential tax increase.

During a meeting this week, the committee unanimously voted to consider a potential increase in taxes, set more than a dozen dates to discuss the new budget and times to meet with each of the county's department heads.

“This is going to be a big task here,” Budget Committee Chair Scott Sumners said. “Deficit budgets are a risk. It is of my opinion that we don't need to be passing budgets in a deficit. That is just good practice. It is time to do what is right.

“If we keep passing deficit budgets, this is going to keep going,” he added. “We have been conservative, but this commission is going to have to be strong. The sky is not falling, but it could fall if we continue to pass deficient budgets.”

Finance Director Doug Lukonen has been tasked with scheduling the meetings between the office heads and commissioners.

“I would like to make sure we meet with every department head as we continue with this process,” said Commissioner Sue Stephenson, a moment of the budget committee.

The finance director previously said that this coming year could be the first that the county will be operating at a deficit.

Lukonen says there is no penalty to passing a deficit budget from the state comptroller, but it will affect the county's credit rating, leading to increased interest rates when the government wants to borrow money.

“Before we impose a tax that will never go away, I want to make sure we have done everything we can to avoid a tax increase,” said Commissioner Matthew White, a member of the budget committee.

Including the pressures from a need for improved facilities both in Maury County Public Schools and local government's own offices, the commission discovered an additional financial strain last month with it discovered an unexpected 4 percent drop in annual revenue last month, a cut of more than $1 million to last year's total budget of $31.7 million.

The loss stems from a 50-cent drop in General Motors' payment in lieu of taxes program and a decrease in the number of state inmates held in the Maury County Jail, which in turn has led to less income from federal funds given as compensation to the county for hosting the prisoners.

To better prepare for the coming review and approval of the school district's budget, the committee has requested Superintendent of Schools Chris Marczak to present a summary sheet when the school board passes a budget.

Marczak, with the assistance of Sumners, proposed implementing a county-wide referendum to bring an increase in sales taxes

The proposal's implementation would yield an estimated $5 million in borrowing capacity for the county commission follows a similar increase passed by neighboring Spring Hill's municipal government.

The superintendent said the .36-cent increase to the Spring Hill's property taxes will bring in an additional $800,000 to the public school district.

County Attorney Daniel Murphy said the transfer of tax funds will have to be approved by the county's voters during the next county election in 2020.

The County's sales tax rate is currently set at 2.25 percent. With a state sales tax rate of 7 percent, the county's cumulative rate is set at more than 9.25 percent.

As a whole, Tennessee has one of the lowest median property tax rates in the United States, the 10th-lowest in the nation. Web-based records indicate the median property tax in Tennessee is $933 per year for a home worth the median value of $137,300. Williamson County collects the highest property tax in the state with an annual average of $1,879 or .59 percent of a home's value. To the west, Decatur County is the state's lowest, collecting an average tax of $333 or 0.5 percent of the median home value.

Maury County currently has a property tax rate of $2.2364 per $100 of assessed property. The property owner of a home valued at $200,000 will be taxed $1,118 from the county.

Moving forward, county commissioners are expecting to make some hard decisions on how the county's finite budget will distributed next year.

“There need to be some cuts,” said Commissioner Kevin Markham, a member of the committee. “The sky is not falling. We are taking a more conservative approach.”

CORRECTION: This article has been amended to reflect that Superintendent Chris Marczak has proposed the introduction of a sales tax.

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